"Stocks reach record highs on AI optimism." Do you know how often I've seen a headline like this lately? What exactly is this optimism? How is AI going to make our lives better? I could maybe see some advancements in science and medicine, but beyond that?

It's only been about a month so far this semester! Seems like it's been longer. I've been working hard and grading. Hope everyone else's semester is going well! :)

I object to this. We can always have reasonable debates about evidence and interpretation, but this seems like an effort to *erase* the past--something that should be beyond the pale. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/... It takes 27 paragraphs before you get to this damning info about Republican parents and vaccines. WaPo has gone WAY downhill. This is consistent with other polling I've seen on rating Trump ahead of Lincoln and Reagan, and that the 2020 election was stolen.

I'm really troubled by this firing.

I've been saying for years that student evals--and their connection to grade inflation--are a major problem illustrating how universities are run like businesses. This model compromises rigor. There's actually a decent-sized literature on this. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

It's nice to see at least *someone* hold their leader accountable for an authoritarian coup. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

sigh...things are about to get real.

A prof at Texas A&M was lecturing on gender. A student starts recording, objects to the lesson plan on the grounds that her religion and Trump say otherwise (eyes rolling), and now the professor is fired. Every day is a nightmare. I'm thinking of Alexis Bledel's character in the Handmaid's Tale.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social on @podsaveamerica.crooked.com, talking about nineteenth century media: "You hoped you got enough printing contracts and enough subscribers to put food on the table. It was never a huge moneymaking proposition."

We were told they voted for him because of the economy. Whatever. That argument has never held much merit. Extensive research going back to 2016 indicates race, immigration, gender, and authoritarianism were far more important.

Mad at quacks Ladapo, RFK, and De Santis getting rid of ALL vaccine requirements? I am, too. No way to understand this and Trumpism sans religion. Ladapo literally says it: your body is a "gift from God." And I've got tons of articles linking evangelical Christianity and anti-vaxx nonsense.

What if we were all too busy with our jobs and lives and in just a few years the U.S. turned into an authoritarian state? I heard Kate Shaw (whom I love) try to make sense of John Roberts's jurisprudence on the EK Show.

I've committed to doing something: I'm going to write the lecture on the Trump era. I teach a modern U.S. history course so we're supposed to go up to the present. How to get all the chaos into one lecture? That will be a daunting challenge.

The spoiled, narcissistic 8-year-old child will go crying to mommy and daddy at the Supreme Court, asking them to bail him out once again. The originalists, in turn, will enable dictatorship by pretending they understand history better than scholarly historians. #TrumpsTariffs

Groan...I'm grading a discussion assignment in an online class. A large number of students are making the same type of grammatical mistake in the form of a run-on sentence. This seems odd and suspicious to me since we'd normally expect a variety of mistakes in student writing.

One thing I think about often is what we will call this era? The authoritarian turn? I'm not sure if that many history professors assign textbook chapters anymore, but I always like to see how historians update their textbooks to stay current.

This was a good article. Thanks to @clintsmithiii.bsky.social for writing it.

that's *really* insulting for the prof to say that about other professors' work, as if there must be a one-size-fits-all approach to education with a certain ideological worldview that looks at college exclusively from the lens of career prep. I can't reply to Shannon so maybe someone else can?

With California and Texas going at it, each side representing a radically different vision of the future of the country, it kind of feels like the 1840s and 50s again. Back then, Texas stood for slavery and racial hierarchy, and eventually, secession and treason.

We should teach this and spread it.

FFS, stop talking about Sydney Sweeney! This didn't need to become a thing and quite frankly, it makes all of you look foolish for turning it into a thing.

A new semester starts this week. I've got a positive attitude and think it's good to have one at the beginning of the semester. Whether I feel that way in two months is another matter entirely.

The rate at which the planet is warming is accelerating. And a climate denier occupies the White House. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Say what you will about Newsom. He deserves criticism on some things. He's too close to PG&E, for example, and they suck. But the EV mandate is great and fighting back on redistricting is the type of pushback against Trumpian authoritarianism for which liberals are desperate.

I visited the same spot roughly 1 year apart, August 2024 and August 2025. These are photographs of Inspiration Point, near the town of Wrightwood. You can see the effects of the fires.

One of the joys of transcribing primary sources is learning about how certain fears and anxieties are perennial. In this letter from 1836, a mother in South Carolina writes to one of her sons in Baltimore about the educational potential of her other son.

Awesome, @profmsinha.bsky.social! I've felt this for a long time -- John Roberts is only the more palatable, polite version of Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/o...

He receives data he doesn't like and how does he respond? By lashing out and firing people. Another competent expert gone. This is what authoritarians do. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Was watching @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @jbf1755.bsky.social for a few minutes and their comments got me to thinking about the responsibilities of citizenship, comparisons to other countries, and the typical response of the Trumpian right.

Let me highlight a couple of trends I've seen in my feeds today: 1. Global civil society organizations have placed the U.S. on a watchlist and ranked us alongside Turkey, Kenya, and El Salvador. Is this making America "great"?

Rosie O'Donnell talks about her move to Ireland due to Trump's authoritarianism. The Irish have welcomed her and she seems to be having a good time. And of course, solid critiques of Trump's America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFj...

Ask yourself, is this imagined conversation: 1. An abolitionist talking to a pro-slavery planter in 1850 Alabama? 2. A climate activist speaking to a fossil fuel apologist in 2025? Take your pick, they both work. Interesting how some ideas remain constant amid vastly different circumstances.

Hulk Hogan. I laughed at some dumb movie he was in when I was 8 yo. Now our politics has become Hoganized--image, fake masculinity, shallow performance, manufactured drama, "real Americans," and suing media orgs into bankruptcy, etc. It appeals to people who didn't ever move beyond 8 years old.

Earlier today Venus Williams played and won a match at a pro tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. She is forty-five years old. I was a ball kid for one of her earliest matches at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland. That match was almost THIRTY YEARS AGO! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSOI...

Spectacular view of the Santa Barbara Channel and Santa Cruz Island from the Cold Spring Trail near Montecito. More of these coming.

"Everything happens for a reason." I'm immensely proud of my Bay Area roots. We're known for environmentalism, open-mindedness, secularism, and welcoming LGBT folks. Something negative happened to me recently and when I told two people about this, they replied with this very common phrase.

I'm sure some of you know Cassandra Good, right? I saved an assignment she had from Fall 2024 in which she asked her students to check out a physical book in the library on a topic of their choice. I'm thinking of doing an assignment like this for in-person classes.

Today's thoughts: 1. It was great to hear Ezra Klein interview Kyla Scanlon. 2. Have you ever heard Chris Hayes snicker? I always laugh when he does. 3. Have you ever met a Freemason? Haha. They were in War and Peace. Reading that changed my life. And I'm watching the BBC version with Lily James.

Turns out I've come across the term "Shylock" a few times in my own research. It is an anti-Semitic trope that goes back to Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Dipshit denied knowing this association, which reminded me of his denial of David Duke and the KKK endorsement.

Hearing about an unacceptable comment delivered to a friend from a dean reminded me how I, too, experienced bullying, demeaning, and abusive behavior (though not from a dean). I told numerous people about this and not one was willing to do anything about it. I feel gaslit and hope they see this.

My favorite statements on patriotism, from George Bernard Shaw, Henry Steele Commager, and Ben Railton.

huffpost.com/entry/is-this-country-crazy_b_6451880 On this Fourth of July, I return to an article written in January 2015 by an American who traveled abroad and was always asked about how so many Americans who could support various policies. It is well worth the read.

Growing up in northern California, I heard no shortage of people mocking hippies. Yet I've always maintained, ala David Crosby, that they were right on many things, including the environment, psychedelics, and favoring peace over war.

I've been assigning introductory videos for my online students, which I should have done a long time ago. It's great to see what some of our students are capable of. I also received a very touching email from a student who recently took my course. In such dark times, I cherish these moments.

It will take a very long time to recover from Trump, assuming we ever do at all. It's Palpatine throwing down the parliamentary seats in Episode 3. I guess parts of the late-20th century were good, before we let money overtake our politics. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I'm absolutely *horrified* just like the rest of you. Senator Padilla put in handcuffs just for asking a question? I thought of how in 1798, Representative Mathew Lyon was arrested under the Alien and Sedition Acts. What can I say that hasn't been said already?

Wow. Totally unnecessary and kind of an immature move tbh. You wrote on a topic I've spent many years studying. I offered my honest feedback with facts. You then gave a tired cliché about smug academics followed by blocking me. There are MUCH better ways to handle these types of things.

If @politico.com covers your research topic, how do you react? Excited at first? Sure. But I'm disappointed in the article by @joshuamzeitz.bsky.social for its lack of context, omission of some key points, and misleading statements. See below what I mean. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

calmatters.org/environment/... We must fight the PERNICIOUS LIE that working classes only care about low gas prices and not climate. It is TERRIBLE framing and a STUPENDOUS FRAUD perpetrated on the American public so that fossil fuel execs can line their pockets while harming the environment.